“First, I encouraged companies to self-regulate and gave them time to prove that they are serious about bringing more women onto their boards. In March 2011, I urged listed companies to sign a voluntary commitment called the “Women on Boards Pledge for Europe”. Only 24 companies signed this pledge. Clearly, self-regulation did not bring about a significant improvement.

In a second stage, I wanted to hear the views of stakeholders, businesses, Member States and citizens. On 5 March the European Commission launched a public consultation that lasted until the end of May.

The number of received responses, shows the great interest in this matter: the Commission received responses from almost 500 individuals, companies, organisations and governments from all over Europe most of them coming from Germany. We are now analysing all the responses and preparing an economic analysis before tabling a proposal before the end of the year. This will be the Commission’s contribution to improving the gender balance on company boards in Europe”.

“When drafting a legal instrument on a “European quota”, it is clear that we must not discriminate against individual candidates competing for a particular position in a company. It is therefore of key importance that Article 23 of our EU Charter of Fundamental Rights explicitly says that specific measures in favour of the under- represented gender are legally possible – but, only if there is under-representation. Thus by definition, quota rules must be limited in time, otherwise they would lead to further inequality. Whatever I will propose, qualification and merit will remain the key criteria for a job on the board.

The Commission is currently assessing ways in which we can best balance the fundamental right of gender equality with the freedom to conduct a business. My personal view has always been that an EU quota rule should be focused on the members of the supervisory boards of companies, or to the non-executive board members in one- tier company structures. You will see the result of our assessment in the legal instrument which the Commission will propose before the end of this year.

The quota might – I say “might”! – be a necessary tool to break the glass ceiling and provide the most qualified candidates with the opportunity to succeed”.